The man tasked with saving the UK’s North Sea oil industry says it will take two years or more to recover from its problems and that Britain should start preparing for life without oil. Last year Sir Ian Wood wrote a report, commissioned by the government , into how to maximise the North Sea’s oil and gas, which has been a big driver of the economy since the 1970s but has been in long-term decline since the late 1990s. In an interview with the Financial Times, Sir Ian Wood warned: “Oil at $35 to $55 [per barrel] is the likely scenario into 2017, and I think the best guess right now for a recovery in the North Sea is 2017-18.” The North Sea today produces about 1.5m barrels of oil per day, compared with 4.5m at its peak. Its problems have increased significantly over the past year, however, as […]